


Easing the Pain

by DarthTella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Accidental Punch To The Face, Based on a Tumblr Post, Declarations Of Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Nightmare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 16:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18831982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthTella/pseuds/DarthTella
Summary: The Doctor accidentally hurts Rose while he's having a nightmare.  Could she ever forgive him?





	Easing the Pain

It was late into the night - relatively of course.  Time really didn’t mean much inside the TARDIS. Rose was feeling tired but not really sleepy, unlike the Doctor it seemed.  When they arrived back from their latest adventure she couldn’t help but notice he looked like he could fall asleep at any moment.  He denied it, of course, but didn’t put up too much of a fight when Rose suggested he should go get some sleep. They retired back to their respective rooms at that point, but not after the Doctor had pulled her into a hug that she swore was tighter than usual.  There was something in the expression of his eyes that made Rose think for a moment that he didn’t want to be alone, and she almost asked if he wanted her company but pulled herself short. That sort of question could be wildly misconstrued and she didn’t want to risk their friendship over it.   

So Rose returned to her room and piled up a bunch of pillows against her headboard so she could sit up comfortably and brought out a novel.  It was one she had read a few times before but still thoroughly loved. On the surface it looked like any old romance novel, but it was a story that was so packed full of details that it took a few read-throughs in order to catch all of them.  After reading a couple of chapters, Rose realised her eyelids were beginning to droop and that she’d been reading the last short paragraph over and over again for the past five minutes. She reached over to find her bookmark (a ticket stub from the Beatles concert the Doctor had taken her to) but Rose ended up throwing the book across the room instead in a reaction to the most horrible noise she had ever heard: the Doctor screaming.

Of course, Rose had heard him scream before, but usually in something like righteous anger or frustration.  But this scream had turned her blood into ice. It was so raw, primal and filled with more terror than Rose imagined even existed.  Running on pure adrenaline she didn’t even remember leaving her own room and bursting into the Doctor’s. When she looked back on it later, she would come to realise that the TARDIS had actually moved the rooms around so when Rose opened her door it led directly into the Doctor’s room.

She found him on his back in the middle of his large bed with his sheets in a twisted mess around his legs and torso.  The Doctor seemed relatively calm for the moment save for his breaths coming out as short laboured gasps. Then he screamed again, his entire back arching off the bed and his arms held stiffly against the mattress as if he had been tied down before he fell limply again.  Rose approached him quickly but carefully knowing how unpredictably people caught in a nightmare could act. She reached out tentatively and tried taking his hand. At the first brush of her fingers against his, he reacted violently. His other arm swung out, his fingers curled into a fist.  Rose cried out in alarm as pain bloomed across her face when his knuckles connected with her chin and she staggered backwards.

The Doctor was still thrashing against an invisible foe as his nightmare doubled down on him.  Rose grabbed at his flailing arms and held on the best she could.

“Doctor!  Doctor, wake up!”  She shouted at him.  He screamed again in response.

“DOCTOR!”  His eyes snapped open, wild and unseeing.  Eventually they settled on her face.

“Rose?”  He breathed still gasping for breath.  She nodded at him, gently carding her fingers through his damp hair.  The Doctor’s face crumpled and he reached out to her. Rose was sitting on her knees next to him, so he was only successful at making a grab at her hips as he lay his cheek against her thighs.  Rose continued to stroke his hair as he broke down into great heaving sobs. It took her a moment to realise he had been mumbling her name over and over along with: “you’re alive.”

“I’m right here.”  She affirmed in a thick voice, her own eyes brimming with tears.  “It was just a dream. I’m still with you. I’ll always be with you, my Doctor.  Always.” The Doctor sat up when she said his name, an awed look in his eyes. Rose didn’t understand the significance of calling him her Doctor.  But it felt so familiar. So right. With trembling hands, the Doctor reached out and cupped her face gently. The way he was kissing her now felt incredibly familiar too.

Then it dawned on Rose: the Doctor was kissing her!  Her arms, which had dropped to her sides when he head sat up finally wound their way around his waist and she held him tight.  Part of her brain was screaming at her that he was only kissing her in a selfish need for comfort, but she told it to sod off. If it was a selfish kiss, it wouldn’t have been so soft and tender.  It was almost like he was trying to comfort her, not the other way around.

His hands never left her face.  At first they remained static, but slowly his fingers began to caress her face.  His thumb brushed over her chin and Rose suddenly broke the kiss and hissed in pain.

“You’re bruised.”  He gasped.

“It’s nothing.”  Rose shrugged. The Doctor frowned his mouth moving soundlessly for a moment.

“Did I…?”  He managed.  Rose shook her head at him.

“It wasn’t your fault.”  She placed her hands over his where he had dropped them back into his lap and gave them a gentle squeeze.

“I hurt you.  I swore I would never…”  His voice cracked, and he sounded close to tears again.  He turned away from her and Rose thought briefly that he was going to bolt, but he turned back towards her a moment later with the sonic screwdriver in his hand.  The Doctor placed his fingers gently against her jaw and Rose held herself still as he aimed it at her chin and activated it. The pale blue light cast deep shadows against his face and Rose could see the self-loathing in his eyes.

“Stop that.”  She whispered.  The whirring of the sonic stopped abruptly.

“Rose, you’re going to be bruised for days if I don’t heal it now.”  He said flatly.

“Not what I meant.”

The Doctor exhaled sharply through his nose as he resumed healing her bruise in silence.  His task complete, he sharply snapped the sonic off and put it back where he got it, but he didn’t turn back around.

“I hurt you.  I punched you right in the face!  Whether I meant to or not, I can’t forgive myself for that!  These nightmares are my fault, caused by decisions I made! And now you’re hurt because of that!  I’ll never be able to --” Unable to bear listening to him talk about himself like that anymore, Rose grabbed him by the shoulders, whirled him around and kissed him hard on the lips.

“I forgive you.”  She whispered against his mouth, then before she could stop herself, “I love you.”  He seemed about to say something, but she kept on talking. “Doctor, you’re not the monster you make yourself out to be.  You had to make hard decisions, but I know you made the ones that saved more lives than it ended.

“What you went through, I know it was terrible and I’m not surprised it gave you nightmares.  But I’m here now, and I’ll chase away as many of them as I can, if you let me. I’m never, ever going to leave you!”

The Doctor just sat there for a moment staring at her in awe.

“What did I do to deserve you, Rose Tyler?”

“You took my hand and said ‘run’.”   A smile finally overtook his face and Rose couldn’t help but smile back.  He kissed her again, and words were forgotten for the rest of the night.


End file.
